HC Wainwright Increases Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Price Target to $102.00

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) had its target price hoisted by equities researchers at HC Wainwright from $90.00 to $102.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the biotechnology company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 57.82% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on VKTX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price objective for the company. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Raymond James increased their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $109.80.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ VKTX opened at $64.63 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $7.20 billion, a P/E ratio of -69.49 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $64.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $61.77. Viking Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $9.34 and a fifty-two week high of $99.41.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.23) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Viking Therapeutics

In related news, CEO Brian Lian sold 112,870 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.80, for a total transaction of $7,426,846.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,354,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $154,954,196.60. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 11,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.89, for a total transaction of $889,790.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $768,455. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 112,870 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.80, for a total transaction of $7,426,846.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,354,927 shares in the company, valued at $154,954,196.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 525,473 shares of company stock valued at $37,088,158. Corporate insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VKTX. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 34.1% in the third quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 38,143 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,415,000 after buying an additional 9,699 shares during the last quarter. Prime Capital Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter worth $235,000. Verus Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in Viking Therapeutics during the third quarter valued at about $222,000. Platform Technology Partners acquired a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at about $289,000. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP increased its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 64.6% in the third quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 8,160 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $517,000 after purchasing an additional 3,202 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

About Viking Therapeutics

Viking Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development of novel therapies for metabolic and endocrine disorders. The company's lead drug candidate is VK2809, an orally available tissue and receptor-subtype selective agonist of the thyroid hormone receptor beta (TRß), which is in Phase IIb clinical trials to treat patients with biopsy-confirmed non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, as well as NAFLD.